Danielle Dieffenthaller began her career after a teenage visit to Trinidad and Tobago where she saw an after-school special featuring people who looked like her. At 18 she returned to Trinidad and took a job at the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Television. She worked on local programmes such as Turn of the Tide, Meena and No Boundaries and persuaded producer and actor Horace James to hire her as a production assistant.
She later studied film at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and worked in England on the Channel Four series The Bandung File. Back in Trinidad she joined the Banyan series Body Beat about the AIDS epidemic and there met Georgia Popplewell and Walt Lovelace. The three co-founded Earth TV, which made programmes including Eco Watch, music videos and planned a film adaptation of Wide Sargasso Sea.
When Westwood Park reached local screens, Dieffenthaller was its producer and director and kept control of the series. Westwood Park ran for six seasons and was shown in various Caribbean territories and syndicated in Papua New Guinea, the United States and the United Kingdom. She was diagnosed with renal failure in 2018, was on dialysis, and a transplant was stymied by heart complications; she died in hospice at 60. In 2019 she was the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence Laureate in Arts and Letters, and industry figures posted tributes after her death.
Difficult words
- filmmaker — A person who makes movies.
- director — A person who oversees a film's production.
- production — The process of creating a film or show.
- explore — To examine or investigate something.explored
- ownership — The state of having control over something.
- legacy — Something passed down from the past.
- inspire — To motivate or encourage someone.inspired
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Discussion questions
- How can filmmakers impact their local communities?
- What role does ownership play in storytelling?
- In what ways can Danielle's legacy influence future artists?
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